AFP - Global pressure mounted on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday, with former colonial ruler Britain calling for tougher EU sanctions over his "disgraceful" crackdown on opposition leaders.

AP - Senate Democrats are striving to stay united during debate on a $2.9 trillion budget outline for 2008 that already has tested their fragile majority.

Reuters - The murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri was tied to his political activities and a special tribunal should be set up to try his killers, the head of a U.N. inquiry said on Wednesday.

AP - The House on Thursday prepared to take up legislation, shadowed by a presidential veto threat, that would for the first time give the half-million people of the District of Columbia a vote in the chamber.

AP - Responding to more allegations of poor health care for veterans, the Pentagon said Thursday it is investigating conditions at a historic retirement home in the capital.

AP - A top European Union envoy met with a senior member of the new Palestinian government Wednesday, joining the U.S. in ending a year of ostracism and leaving Israel increasingly isolated in its demand for a total boycott of the Hamas-Fatah coalition.

AP - Federal regulators said Thursday they lacked authority over expanding areas of the high-risk mortgage market as lawmakers pressed them on whether they were lax and helped fuel the spike in delinquent payments and foreclosures.

CQPolitics.com - The Florida House of Representatives upped the ante yesterday, voting 115-1 to move the state’s presidential primary to Jan. 29.

AP - The leaders of a Senate panel said Thursday that the Defense and State departments must work more closely together to avoid repeating multimillion dollar mistakes in the reconstruction of Iraq.

AP - The Senate Thursday easily defeated a bid by conservative Republicans to curb the spiraling growth of the Medicare program as debate on a $2.9 trillion budget outline for 2008 entered its third day.

AP - A Mideast banker for 30 years who has camped in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and traveled in the mountains of Yemen and Oman, Ford M. Fraker, assured Congress Thursday that as ambassador to Saudi Arabia he would try to stem the flow of money to terrorist groups.

AP - Explosives looted from Iraq munitions sites will likely continue to support terrorist attacks throughout the region, a congressional report said Thursday, finding that some sites were still not secured more than three and a half years after the war started.

Reuters - Britain will vote against a transatlantic aviation deal between the European Union and the United States unless two key conditions are met, industry sources said on Wednesday.

AP - President Bush has tried for years to reassert a White House right to keep secrets from Congress. Now he must decide how far he wants to go to keep aides from testifying about the firing of federal prosecutors.

CQPolitics.com - The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) reported raising $2.7 million in February, compared with $2.4 million for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), according to documents filed this week by the committees that will oversee the major parties’ fundraising and strategy for the 2008 Senate campaign.

AP - A reporter for the new Politico Web site apologized for reporting that John Edwards was suspending his campaign for president more than an hour before Edwards said Thursday he was staying in the race.

AP - Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill can exceed federal fundraising limits to recover the $1.6 million she lent her failed 2004 campaign for governor, election regulators said Thursday.

AP - A law that encourages pharmaceutical companies to study their drugs in children has led to important label changes in most products studied, government auditors said Thursday. They also said most studies arising from the law are still under way.

AP - Explosives looted from Iraq munitions sites probably will continue to support terrorist attacks throughout the region, a congressional report said Thursday. It said some sites were still not secure more than 3 1/2 years after the war started.

AP - The chief investigator probing the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri on Wednesday backed the creation of an international tribunal to prosecute the alleged perpetrators.

AP - The Bush administration would be able to override tough state regulations of chemical facilities if Congress doesn't do something about it, some Democratic lawmakers say.

AP - Charges of blame were flying Thursday for the meltdown of the high-risk mortgage market as pressure mounted for Congress to do something about rising foreclosures among homeowners unable to meet high payments.

AP - Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton on Thursday defended Israel's war with Hezbollah militia in Lebanon last summer as legitimate and one that had the support of several Arab countries as well as the United States.

AP - Legislation to give the District of Columbia a full vote in the U.S. House stalled Thursday when Republicans unexpectedly injected the volatile issue of gun control.

AFP - Medical professionals from Taiwan called on the United States Wednesday to help convince the European Union and other key countries to support the island's entry into the World Health Organization (WHO).

Reuters - Eradicating tuberculosis could take centuries without better drugs and diagnostics for the contagious disease and its deadly new strains, United Nations health officials said on Thursday.